


Doctor Strange and the Realm of Dreams

by scarecrowslady



Series: Distortions In Time 'Verse [3]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Mystery, Science Fantasy, Tesla and pseudoscience and science, action adventure, other OCs - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-02-02
Packaged: 2018-09-20 14:55:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,308
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9497027
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scarecrowslady/pseuds/scarecrowslady
Summary: When dreams begin to spiral out of control, when a mage hears the call of a rising shadow, when chaos spreads around the world, there is only one thing a sorcerer can do. Go dream hunting. Genfic. Mild Stephen/Christine. OC charas. DIT-verse tie-in standalone.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> See below for tags and warnings, etc.

**A few decades earlier...**

"Daddy… Can you – can you tell me a bedtime story?"  
"Sure, honey," he smiles and sits down at her side, making sure her blanket is tucked firmly about her. "What kind of story do you want tonight?"  
"A fun one! An exciting one!"  
"About a princess?"  
"No!" The girl scrunches up her face. "Something cooler."  
"Hmmm…" His hand rubs his moustache and chin as he thinks over his daughter's request. "Well, maybe I do have a story."  
"Tell me! Tell me!"  
"It's a story about a girl."  
"Daddy," the girl interjects solemnly. "You said this wasn't a princess story."  
"This isn't," he reassures her. "I begin my princess stories with 'Once upon a time, in a land far, far away...'"  
"Oh, right." The girl settles back onto her pillow.  
"Now, where was I... A story about a girl who came from a land far away. Her name was…"

-0-0-0-

**A few months earlier...**

"So… things are gonna change, aren't they?"  
"I guess so. But… but not in the important ways that matter. The important things."  
"Like?"  
"How I love you and you love me?"  
"So you can read minds now?" she teases.  
"Maybe… not." He smiles and for the first time in his life feels like an awkward teenager all over again.

_This is ridiculous._

"Maybe not everything is gonna stay the same," he finally says, remembering a friend now lost to him.  
"Hm. Good thing I'm OK with letting you in on a secret."  
"Secret?" he asks.  
"The not-so secret." She smiles. "I love you too." Then her expression becomes a little more serious. "But, we are gonna have to make a deal."  
"A deal?" He smiles widely. "That sounds OK to me. Anything will be fine."  
"Hm." She says. "We'll see. We'll… we'll see. We'll have to take this one step at a time. Getting back together won't be so easy – doubly so because of…" She waves a hand. "…your abilities and your new life."  
"Nothing is really going to change," he reiterates.  
"Everything is going to change." She gives him a look. "It has to."

-0-0-0-

**A few moments earlier...**

Such long years.  
Such darkness.  
Such silence.

_And now…_

_And now…_

Light. Odd white lights.  
Strange noises. Unrecognizable chatter.  
Unfamiliar surroundings. Oddly shaped items.

 _Was this a new world?_  
_Was this a new time?_

Stretch out and taste the air and dip into the fires of the world's energy.

 _Ahhh…_  
_So much different… yet, so much the same.  
Time to begin once again._


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See below for tags and warnings, etc. Also see below for replies to any reviews!

She wakes to the sound of crashing waves. Cold pierces her as she slowly raises herself to sitting position. Looking about her, she pays no attention to the salty spray which now moistens her skin and dampens her clothing. Her lips are cracked and dry and the salt stings against them. Yet, her eyes are focused far into the distance.

 **_…_ ** _look…_  
…with eyes which wish to see...  
…those who fear not the truth…

She rises and looks forward to the vast ocean before her. An ominous oceanscape forms before her. The waves before her eyes rapidly darken from brilliant blues and greens to ominous blue-blacks and deep greys. Overhead, the clear blue sky begins to fill with the faint wisps of cloud. The horizon also blurs with fog and rain and heavy lowering clouds which ominously build upward.

 **_…_ ** **_look…  
…what comes…_ **

In only a few seconds the storm builds upwards, blotting out the sun.

Reality passes through time, burning swiftly like birch tinder beneath a fire. Rapid. Time lapse.

The storm is coming, and he wonders what it signifies.

_He._

"What does it signify?"

"Could be anything," she responds lightly.

She does not turn. Her eyes are fixed on the storm.

 **_…_ ** **_look…_ **

It is coming.

-0-0-0-

He jerked awake then and for a moment lay there stunned, uncertain of what he had seen. _Seen? More like dreamed_ , he snorted to himself. Yet, it seemed more than a mere wisp of a dream. The salt and the cold water, the moist air and the brisk wind, the gently blurring sun and the encroaching fog. It all lingered within the corners of his mind, unpleasantly vivid. _Unpleasantly real._

"Real?" he asked himself aloud.

Half a year ago, he would have dismissed it easily. Half a year ago, he would have mentioned Freud with a scornful laugh. Half a year ago, he would have forgotten the dream instantly as he focused on "more important" matters. Half a year ago, he was a different man.

Now, the man known as Stephen Strange was no longer his own. He was no longer a renowned brain surgeon. He was no longer the master of his fate. Fate was the master of his fate, and dreams, perhaps, were more than dreams.

 _Something for me to ask Wong_ , Stephen reminded himself with a quirk of his eyebrows as he contemplated one of the last remaining masters in the art. _Wong was a laugh. Not._ Stephen eased back onto his pillow with a short sigh. _In the morning, I can pop over to Kathmandu and check on the apprentices. Ask him then. Astral projection, the mirror dimension, life beyond the confines of what we know… Maybe it is only a dream… but maybe it is something else._

Stephen grinned at the realization that library time was upcoming.

_Research._

Stephen's grin fell away at another thought.

_Christine._

-0-0-0-

"I had a dream last night," Stephen cradled his smartphone neatly between his ear and shoulder as he contemplated a pair of sling rings before him.

He turned slightly in the unfortunately not-so-well-padded swivel chair the better to inspect the designs within the dim ray of New York sunlight filtering through the Sanctum's old-fashioned pane windows. It was late spring, but the night still fell earlier than Stephen would have liked.

 _Time is such a precious commodity_ , he mused, remembering the Ancient One's final words. _Her final moments._

Christine's voice broke into his thoughts.

"A dream?" Christine asked. "A nightmare? Or does Stephen Strange no longer get the spooks at night?"  
"Well, I wasn't spooked exactly," Stephen hummed appreciatively as his faintly trembling fingers held the second ring closer for inspection. "It was just… weird. You know?"  
"LSD weird?"  
"No… it was… there was a girl. Maybe I was the girl…"  
"I'm sure Freud has a lot to say about that-"  
"No," Stephen rolled his eyes, "Look it was normal – sort of – but not normal. There were little things that were off. Time was fast-forwarding. Time lapse. A storm was building…"  
"Maybe you are finally coming to terms with… you know… everything," Christine pointed out sensibly.  
"Hmmm… No. I'm fairly self-aware enough to-"  
"I'm sorry. The line must be really bad because I think I just heard you say that you are fairly self-aware-"  
"Fairly, yes."  
"Fairly self-aware?" Christine chuckled. "Says the man who was in love himself since he got out of diapers."  
"Um." Stephen said teasingly. "Look. I knew I was a dick sometimes-"  
"Sometimes? You mean, most of the time. And knowing makes what you did worse-"  
"I note the past tense."  
"Yeah." He could almost hear her smiling over the phone. "You're doing better these days, but that's not saying much."  
"I apologized."  
"That does go a long way… but actions speak louder than words."  
"True."  
"And you have had a dream… and you're telling me you've had a dream. That means you think you are going to be away for a little while?" Christine surmised.  
"Clever, clever." Stephen admitted. "Yes."  
"Thanks for keeping me in the loop."  
"I won't be away for long," promised Stephen. "I just need to do my research. Double-check to make sure my dream doesn't mean anything."  
"You will be back in time for the charity event at the Metro?"  
"Oh, yeah, yeah. Just a quick jaunt to Kathmandu and back."  
"I don't need to know."  
"Love you," he said.  
"Love you, too," she replied lightly.

He pressed her no further and hung up looking more thoughtful than usual.

-0-0-0-

"Dreams," Wong gave Stephen a hard look.

Within his wide brown face, Wong's glittering black eyes brooked no quarter, and Stephen found himself shifting from foot to foot as if he were a beginner's apprentice once again. Annoyance rose, and, hands on his hips, the newest mage master turned away.

"Look. I just need some books on dreams. You got any?"  
"There are a few books on dreams – the interpretation of dreams, the significance of dreams, important dreams of Ancient Ones long past, and the treatises on dreams by a variety of Sorcerers Supreme. What are you looking for specifically, Master Strange?"  
"Doctor. It's Doctor," Stephen massaged the bridge of his nose.  
"Doctor. Strange."  
"I had a dream about a storm. There was a girl. She seemed to be focused on it. She said it could be anything. Is the girl me? Is the storm me? Or is the storm something bad that will happen? If it signifies something bad, then what is it? Is the girl a figment of my mind – or is she an actual person? Is she a mage? Another Sorcerer Supreme?"  
"There is only one Sorcerer Supreme within each Realm at any single time," Wong shook his head curtly. "If she is real, if she is a Sorcerer Supreme, she must be from another Realm. But…"  
"But?"

Wong turned and made his way past the elemental magicks and disappeared around the corner of the bookshelves for a moment. Rattling broke the silence as three books were removed from their prescribed places within the ancient metal honeycomb shelves.

"But this girl… what did she look like?"  
"Blonde haired… blue eyed… medium height… late twenties, early thirties… myopic…"  
"Hm. It does not sound like any Sorcerer Supreme the Ancient Once spoke of, nor does it sound like anyone I have read about in the Annals." Wong reappeared, three books in hand, and set the books down with an authoritative thud. "Asgard has the High Mage Agaeti – an elderly mage with many years of experience."  
"Many?"  
"Over four thousand. Or so it is said."  
"Holy shit," Stephen turned then, dark eyebrows rising. "The Sorcerer Supreme of Asgard made a deal with Dormamu too?"  
"No," Wong's smile was stiff. "Asgardians, according to the literature remaining from the Ancient Ones of millennia long past, are blessed with long life. Around five thousand years or so."  
"That's… nice for them," Stephen drew a chair up and sat back in it as Wong disappeared again in search of a few more books.  
"And there are others… Kalidor of Svartalfheim oversees his Realm with a dark gaze. He is around seven thousand years old. Alfheim's Lindellu of Garyth-thorn. I forgot how long he has been in charge… but it's been a long time."  
"They're elves, right?"  
"Dark and Light Elves, yes. Both quite long-lived as a species."  
"What about…" Stephen hunted around for the name. "Jotun…haim?"  
"Jotunheim…" Wong set two more books down. "That place is desolate and dying. If you believe the reports. They have not had a Sorcerer Supreme since the day Asgard defeated them."  
"Sucks to be them."  
"Hm."  
"So the girl in my dream…"  
"May be a powerful mage. There are many powerful mages who may one day be a Sorcerer Supreme for their Realms… or who may be the hero that is needed when the time comes." Wong gave Stephen another hard look.  
Stephen raised a hand. "Hey, don't look at me! I did my duty."  
"One day, sooner than you think, you will be Sorcerer Supreme."  
"Uhh…"  
"I can see it."  
"You had a dream?" Stephen asked curiously.  
Wong laughed then. "Not a dream, no. Call it a hunch – or premonition."

Stephen sighed.

"At any rate," Wong shoved the stack of books toward his friend, "there are others. Other powerful mages. You may have heard of them – particularly regarding the Avengers. A few years back, Thor of Asgard stayed on Earth and Loki, his brother, joined him. According to the Ancient One, she was not required to step into the battle due to the combined powers of the brothers."  
"Thor and Loki? As in the… Norse legends?"  
"The Norse legends are more than likely not based on this Thor and this Loki. They are, after all, young, it seems. However, at the dawn of mankind, other races have shared this Earth with us – both Asgardian and Jotunn. Thors and Lokis of those ancient times remain with us through myths… and today, perhaps, the cycle begins anew."  
"I remember the news… but the stations didn't say much about magick or anything like that."  
"Our world has only begun to accept mutants and other kinds of enhanced humans," Wong shook his head. "It is difficult to talk about something like magick to skeptical minds. As you would know."  
Stephen winced and said, "I take your point."  
"But, back to the topic at hand… A mage such as yourself – or Loki – could touch another's dream… but you did not meet Loki. You would have known."  
"Huh. So if the dream was a connection between myself and another mage, I could find the mage and get more details from them?"  
"Perhaps they know the meaning. Perhaps they do not. Perhaps you two were destined to meet in order to help each other." Wong paused and shook his head. "Now I sound like some two-bit gongfu master."  
"Gongfu? You mean… kungfu?"  
"Kungfu is gongfu." Wong rolled his eyes.  
"I thought you WERE a kung – gongfu master…"  
"Get to reading, Strange. If something is coming, I'd like to know about it before it's too late."

By the time Wong reached the library door, however, Stephen was already focused on the books before him. Drawing his tablet closer for note-taking, Stephen opened the first book. It was time to delve into the world of dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first Doctor Strange story. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please review! I appreciate concrit and, of course, encouragement.
> 
> Thanks to: PriscaMachado for reviewing! I hope the story continues to be interesting...
> 
> Tags: genfic, Stephen/Christine (mild), OC  
> Genre: genfic, action/adventure, science fantasy, mystery  
> Warnings: some language, no sex, scientific concepts, Tesla, novella
> 
> ANOTHER BIG WARNING: This has some mild references to my DiT book(s). If you haven't read DiT or any of the side stories, don't worry... the references are slight, but if you see something that isn't canon to the Marvel world, please know that DiT is an AU and as such has altered a few things in the storyline. For those who are waiting for the DiT sequel. I am waiting for Thor 3 to come out before I get serious with my writing. Until then, I hope you enjoy this novella.

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first Doctor Strange story. I hope you enjoy it. If you do, please review! I appreciate concrit and, of course, encouragement.
> 
> Tags: genfic, Stephen/Christine (mild), OC  
> Genre: genfic, action/adventure, science fantasy, mystery  
> Warnings: some language, no sex, scientific concepts, Tesla, novella
> 
> ANOTHER BIG WARNING: This has some mild references to my DiT book(s). If you haven't read DiT or any of the side stories, don't worry... the references are slight, but if you see something that isn't canon to the Marvel world, please know that DiT is an AU and as such has altered a few things in the storyline. For those who are waiting for the DiT sequel. I am waiting for Thor 3 to come out before I get serious with my writing. Until then, I hope you enjoy this novella.


End file.
